Yes, you can log into Windows even if you forgot your password—even if there is no other administrative account on the PC. From a security point of view, this is actually scary news. But there are legitimate reasons to use the tricks below, and none of them will let a criminal log in without your knowledge (the password is changed, not revealed) or access encrypted data. Yet another reason to encrypt your sensitive files.

I’ve provided instructions here for Windows 7 and 10. Windows 8 users should have no trouble following the Windows 10 instructions.

Windows 7

You’ll need a Windows 7 System Repair Disc. You can use one created on someone else’s Windows 7 PC–providing that one of the PCs isn’t 64-bit and the other 32. You’ll find instructions for making one in my Boot discs explained article.

To change the password, boot from the System Repair Disc. When prompted, press any key.

Eventually you’ll get to the System Recovery Options screen. Note the operating system location; it might be C:, or D:, or whatever. Click Next.

At the next page, click Command Prompt.

Once there, type each of these lines, pressing Enter after each one. Replace the x in the first line with the operating system location you noted above.

x:

cd windows\system32

ren utilman.exe utilhold.exe

copy cmd.exe utilman.exe

exit

Remove the disc and reboot.

At the log-on screen, click the Ease of access icon in the lower-left corner to bring up a command prompt.

Within that command prompt, type net userusername newpassword, replacing username with your current username (it’s clearly visible on the screen), and replace newpassword with—I’ll leave that up to you.